Vicars urged to rein in the jokes and rambling anecdotes in sermons

It is a sound as familiar in British churches as organ music or an echoing cough from the back row.

But the familiar ritual of congregations raising a faint titter as the vicar attempts another toe-curling joke or rambling anecdote could become a thing of the past if the findings of new research are taken to heart by clerics.

According to new research, churchgoers would far rather clergy stick to serious topics and leave the jokes to the comedians.

A survey of Christians found that they ranked weighty explanations of the Bible as 27 times as important in a sermon as humour and “practical application”, 42 times more highly than personal anecdote.

The findings come from research commission by the Christian resources Exhibition, a trade fair for all things clerical taking place at the ExCel centre in London next week. For the first time, organisers are running a “sermon of the year competition”.

A poll of almost 1,400 regular churchgoers commissioned for the event found a perhaps surprising appetite for longer sermons, with less than one per cent favouring a talk of under five minutes but 36 per cent favouring a monologue of between 20 and 30 minutes.

When asked to choose the most important element in a sermon from a list of choices, 44.3 per cent favoured “Biblical exposition” and only 1.6 per cent opted for a “sense of humour”.

There is nothing worse than a boring sermonLord Carey

Similarly, “practical application” was the second most popular choice – garnering 40 per cent of support – compared with just under one per cent for “personal anecdotes”.

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, said: “I’m a great believer in humour - there is nothing worse than a boring sermon.

“Just two minutes of a boring sermon can be almost like geological time, it goes on forever.

“I believe in proper use of humour, if it is relevant. A really good joke can do two things: it can link in with the address and give a bit of a breathing space.

“Even in Parliament when someone uses humour it relaxes people and takes some of the heaviness out of an address but it has to be in its right place.”

Lord CareyCredit:
Andrew Crowley

The Rev Kate Bottley, the Church of England vicar and star of the reality television show Gogglebox, said she regularly attempts jokes and anecdotes in the pulpit but is painfully aware of the pitfalls of doing so – including the “groans” of her own children.

“A vicar cracking a joke that isn’t funny is the equivalent of ‘dad dancing’,” she said.

“If you asked most preachers, I think perhaps we think we are funnier than we are.

“I think ….this is about authenticity: I suspect there are some vicars trying to be funny who aren’t.

“And [people] are right, preaching is a serious business, we are opening the word of God and so it should never be taken lightly.”

She admitted that some of her worst moments in the pulpit include looking down at the reading to realise she had prepared a sermon on the wrong text.

I used to have a man who when I stood up to preach started adjusting his hearing aid – I naively thought he was turning it upThe Rev Kate Bottley

“The death knell is when people say lovely sermon vicar’ and you think obviously that probably means that they weren’t listening.

“I recently preached a really gut wrenching, soul exposition, sermon where I talked about being angry with God and someone shook my hand afterwards and just said ‘lovely sermon vicar’.

“I used to have a man who when I stood up to preach started adjusting his hearing aid – I naively thought he was turning it up.

“But it doesn’t do a preacher any harm to have their ego pricked once in a while.”

The Rev Kate BottleyCredit:
John Stillwell/PA/PA

Andy Kind, a stand-up comedian who has trained vicars in comedy techniques, said:

“Obviously people don’t want a stand-up routine in place of good teaching, and that’s perfectly reasonable – neither do I.

“But most people remember stories above facts, and nothing oils the wheels of a good story like humour.

“I actually think that a sense of humour is not only important, but vital and engaging.

“But what we really must not do is topple over from a position of seeing humour as non-vital to one where laughter is somehow wayward.

“Humour and laughter are wonderful gifts to the church, and we have more than a few very talented exponents of them amongst our ranks.

“It infuriates me when this amazing healing gift is seen as frivolous.”